For the last four years now, a cornucopia of blogs have sprung out of the ether every January to report on the AMS elections. Some are incisive, some are silly, some are forgettable and all are in the running to get a bit of money for their work from students who vote in favour of their coverage in a separate election. This is known as Voter Funded Media (VFM), and it livens up campus politics and keeps candidates accountable.

Unfortunately, elections end, the monetary incentive dries up, and none too surprisingly, so do the VFM blogs. Sites once populated with comments become as barren as this campus on a Sunday morning. And The Ubyssey is once again the only news source on campus. Mwahahaha!

We rhetorically laugh, but this isn’t an ideal system. Alternative media is needed in any society; it provides other viewpoints on issues and keeps the mainstream groups on their toes. I’ve always loved the combination of entertainment and reporting done by the various blogs on campus, and think that VFM is without a doubt a good thing.

But there have been problems in its implementation. For one, the month-to-month grind of student issues and politics didn’t get due attention under the old system. Elections are by nature the glitziest part of the political process, but elected leaders reveal themselves to be effective or incompetent during their terms, not their campaigns.

Also, because the old system only gave financial compensation in one big splurge, it favoured ex-student politicians with plenty of experience and opinions. They would enter the competition for a month, blog a little during the elections, collect a few hundred dollars, and depart.

But these problems have been rectified, and the AMS has made VFM year-round. Giving credit where credit is due, they realized that the current system wasn’t ideal and made the necessary changes. Small miracles can occur.

That being said, should a year-round system entice new VFM blogs to spring up—and we hope there are many—it would be nice if they focused on things other than our student union. VFM blogs can be a great way to get people talking about the student experience in new and interesting ways. This is a giant campus with interesting things happening in research, academics and student life—areas that VFM blogs rarely cover.

Those that like seeing ambitious and egotistical students play pretend government like it a lot. But student government is not the be-all and end-all of this campus. This may come as a shock to some in the AMS, who tend to think that if everyone only knew all the awesome stuff they were doing they would totally agree, but our student union is but one ingredient in the pizza that is this campus. And not everyone likes sardines.

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